


An Account of the Ninja

by IWillKeepFighting



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Albeit Indirectly, Gen, I mean seriously no one is "present" to tag, all of the ninja are mentioned, how do I tag for this style, literally zero names in this fic, no spoilers for season 11, season 11 has not happened yet in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 09:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20619011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWillKeepFighting/pseuds/IWillKeepFighting
Summary: (First, there were none. There was creation and there was destruction, and the first ninja was born of both.)First there was one.





	An Account of the Ninja

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Five Heartbeats in the Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/519263) by Eldritch-Sun. 

(First, there were none. There was creation and there was destruction, and the first ninja was born of both.)

First there was one.

He found love, and had two sons. He trained them, and they were three.

His love was lost, and his elder son was bitten. He entrusted the younger with the responsibilities that could not disappear, and then he faded.

There were two. For the very, very longest of times, there were two.

Then there were more — Elemental Masters, seeking out the way of the ninja. Some stayed, some left. They were many. There were children, and their numbers were growing.

Then — betrayal, snakes, other threats — they dwindled away, to their separate lives. Soon enough, the elder brother found love, and had a son of his own. He could not alter his history, however, and the poison from his childhood hollowed him from the inside out, until he left his family and sought a darker realm. The wife, a human woman, left their child and sought knowledge.

There was one.

He took on students, a few here and there, keeping distant, until one showed a potential his father had bade him watch for. This one he trained properly, pushed him, expected greatness of him, and there were two. But that kind of greatness could never be fulfilled and, abruptly, there was only one again.

Bearing the weight of failure, he withdrew, and traveled. He sought out the elements of creation, pursuing only those of specific potential. He found one, another, and another; but they became three, not four, because he no longer counted himself among their number.

With the final element of creation, they were four-and-one.

The elder son of the First returned, as something other than what he once was. A partial prophecy was revealed, and a fifth ninja became known: the son of the returned elder son. He made the others stronger for his presence, and they him. He fulfilled that which was predicted of him, defeating a tremendous evil, and freed his father. They were, then, five-and-two.

The evil returned. It was defeated, but not by prophecy. A ninja sacrificed his life. They became four-and-two. This loss would be only the first, but it was also temporary: he was recovered.

They were not five-and-two again for long; they became five-and-one as the fifth's father banished himself to another realm to save their own.

The past of the First's younger child came back to haunt them all: the student whom he failed as a teacher. The ninja fought to save their fifth, and succeeded, and in the process discovered a sixth.

(Said sixth was lost, but those events were forgotten by history, and she remained.)

The next change in number reduced them to six — the ninja lost their master. They turned to the youngest of their number to lead their way.

The ninja were told of the history of the First, and things began to change. They found their master, only shortly before the return of his brother, but neither were who they had been. The younger had been reduced to infancy by Time, while the elder returned only in the barest sense, a corrupted part of himself, born of darkness.

The ninja were then divided: two and four-and-one. The two clung to each other, and endured. The rest scraped their way to survival in the realm of the First, raising their master and teaching him as he had taught them. (There, ever so briefly, the distinction was lost and they were five.) With the aid of the Firstbourne of Creation, the ninja were reunited, six-and-one again.

The Omega of Destruction besieged the ninja's home. To fend off the forces of darkness, the shadow of the First's elder son was forced to bring their number to six-and-one-and-one, to lend balance to the whirlwind of energy the other ninja Created to win the battle.

For brief moments after that battle, the First and his grandson exist in the same realm. Then the boy awakens.

The ninja are six, and one, and a shadow.

This number will change.

**Author's Note:**

> Briefly searching how to tag the First Spinjitzu Master came up with, among others, a fic with a similar idea in the summary. I hadn't read it previously, so, no intentional correlation. It's called "From The Beginning" if you're interested.
> 
> "Five Heartbeats in the Silence" on ff.net, however! That was a very direct inspiration. ahahaaHAHAHAAA the feels. It hurts. I love it.


End file.
